Atlantic Coalition

With the secession of the Empire State in early 1930 and the formation of the Maritime Provinces in May 1931, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island had a choice - join one of their two powerful neighbors, or form their own country.

Internal squabbles foiled the effort to create an actual nation, but the increased threat of annexation from the Empire State - desirous to expand their stretch of coastline and thus their share of the trans-Atlantic trade - forced the three one-time states into an uneasy coalition, united only on a single principle - they would not be forced either into the Empire or the Provinces. In order to ensure this, the new nation's government, seated in Boston, created the Coalition Militia, which repelled sorties from the Empire State Air Force, the Provincial Air Force and the Red Skulls.

The Coalition's primary asset is its fleet of airships and surface cargo vessels - the highest person-to-ship ratio in North America. Other nations run their zeppelins in a hub-and-spoke system, but the Coalition airships run direct routes to London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome, nonstop. It's slightly more expensive, but hours or days faster.

Politically, the Coalition exists as little more than a mutual-defence pact between member nations. The elected General Assembly holds relatively little power, not least because the Coalition lacks a national militia, relying on numerous city-level forces. President Augustus Mason, a wealthy and respected pillar of the community, holds a strictly isolationist view towards the rest of North America, while attempting to form closer diplomatic ties with European states.